Pork plunder impossible sans Executive collusion

POSTSCRIPT 
By Federico D. Pascual Jr.
The Philippine Star

CONNIVANCE: We have said it before and we say it again: Plunder charges against lawmakers and businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles will not be credible without also prosecuting their accomplices in the Department of Budget and Management and the implementing agencies.

By themselves, a senator and Napoles cannot steal billions from the Priority Development Assistance Funds, pull a heist of such magnitude and complexity, without the connivance of accomplices in the DBM and IAs.

That was one missing link in the Senate testimony of Ben Hur Luy, a relative and former staffer of Napoles, who spilled details of the PDAF hijack without implicating any identifiable accomplice in the DBM and the IAs.

One wonders if Luy has instructions not to drag in and smear the Executive department.

*      *      *

HYPOCRITICAL: It was awkward and hypocritical for the Senate hearing not to have pressed Luy to identify the senators who had received bags of money from Napoles. Those who sat there to grill Luy were too kind to, or afraid of, their peers.

Or maybe they did not want a spectacle where there would be more senators on the carpet than behind the microphones shooting questions and pretending to be clean.

It was a useless attempt to protect their own kind, because the senators whose hands are greasy with pork have been identified in media and have been, in fact, already convicted in the public mind.

If the past were to be an indication of where the present will lead us, most of the lawmakers implicated in the PDAF hijack will invoke our notorious “due process” and go scot-free at the end of the long day.

It will indeed be a long day, dragging on beyond the term of President Noynoy Aquino, after whom the foreshadowing of the drama dims.

*      *      *

CLEAN HANDS: The crudely hidden attempt not to implicate Executive officials is sickening. It cannot be that only those who are not allies of the President and members of the Liberal Party horde are sinners.

Unless somebody rewrites the Constitution, President Aquino is not running for reelection. Assuming that he will leave office with his hands clean, it should not matter much to the lame duck that he turns over the reins of government to an ally or an LP stalwart.

He does not need an ally, a Yellowist, or a fellow Liberal, to continue his reform program and cover his tracks, if any.

President Aquino will serve higher public interest, particularly of the masses wallowing in poverty and insecurity, if he makes good his promise that the prosecution of this pork barrel scandal will go where the evidence leads it.

This is possible only if the President himself is clean. We have to assume he is, otherwise the pretense, the scaffolding, will collapse on us all.

*      *      *

SURE SUSPENSION: If the wheels of justice move faster than usual, we might see a depopulated Congress — a welcomed dividend for us taxpayers — with the mandatory suspension of a number of legislators.

Section 5 of RA 7080 (the plunder law) orders: “Any public officer against whom any criminal prosecution under a valid information under this Act in whatever stage of execution and mode of participation, is pending in court, shall be suspended from office.”

It will not be President Aquino suspending them, but will the politician in him allow the process to reach that point where several senators and congressmen are thrown out, leaving a gaping hole in the legislature?

That is the severe test of Noynoy Aquino’s political backbone that we pointed out in our Postscript of Sept. 8, 2013 (http://tinyurl.com/l9fmw8d).

*      *      *

FAIR & UNFORGIVING: President Aquino should not find it difficult allowing the law to take its course leading to the suspension of some high-profile lawmakers.

Simply by being fair, he can win wider public trust and weather the flak from the camp of politicians who may be taken down. It is important that the same standards be applied in investigating and prosecuting conniving officials in the Executive branch.

We expect the same objectivity, for instance, in the case of Malampaya funds in the care and control of the President. These had reportedly been stolen by the billions, pork barrel style, with the use of bogus non-government organizations similar to those of Napoles.

Everybody is watching the President. His trust rating would be boosted by his being fair and unforgiving to friends and foes alike.

*      *      *

FESTIVE CLARK: Clark Freeport in Pampanga is preparing a grand event for everyone, from Yuletide shoppers and bargain hunters to sports enthusiasts and fans, adventurers, weekend tourists and others, this Nov. 15-16.

Tentatively dubbed “Clark Festival,” the affair will showcase for the first time what Clark has to offer in terms of products and services of its 500-plus locators in this emerging commercial-industrial hub in Central Luzon.

Rene Banzon, president of the Clark Investors and Locators Association, detailed the festival menu when he joined last Friday the Balitaan breakfast of the Capampangan in Media Inc. (CAMI) at its Bale Balita (House of News) in Clark.

The two-day festival is a joint project of CILA and the Clark Development Corp. headed by President/CEO Arthur Tugade.

“We hope to whip up a fiesta-cum-Christmas atmosphere in the zone for participants and visitors,” Banzon said.

Among the activities lined up are a trade fair, golf tournament, sports fests (including golf, American football, rugby, fun bike race, fun run), sky diving exhibition, cooking demo, an animal (including a dog) show and a horse-riding festival.

*      *      *

RESEARCH: Access past POSTSCRIPTs at www.manilamail.com. Follow us via Twitter.com/@FDPascual. Send feedback to fdp333@yahoo.com